Feeling cornered? Is the enemy advancing?Is doubt or fear niggling at you, wearing away your confidence in being healthy again?

Take a lesson from Isaiah's playbook. Called by Hezekiah when an enemy army was advancing with intent to decimate a city, Isaiah prayed a prayer so significant, so powerful, that it merited two accounts in separate books of the Bible - II Kings and Isaiah - and with results so effective that they received a third mention in II Chronicles, chapter 32. Prayer stopped the deadly enemy cold.

At the crescendo of Isaiah's prayer was this thundering finale:

"Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria,He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there,nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.By the way that he came, by the same shall he return,and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake,and for my servant David's sake." (II Kings 19:32-34, Isaiah 37:33-35)

Let me break this down.

In its spiritual signification we can look at the king of Assyria not as a particular person in history, but as any thought or condition that bullies or threatens to wipe us out. Point by point Isaiah explains divine Love's protective power against four specific tactics of the enemy:

It shall not:

Invade - "He shall not come in"

Pervade - "nor shoot an arrow there"

Resist - "nor come before it with shield"

Persist -"nor cast a bank against it."

Long before the impending battle, Hezekiah battled the threats of the enemy. The enemy king sent a messenger to announce his plans to destroy the city. The intent was, of course, to undermine Hezekiah's confidence and increase his fear. Hezekiah was feeling defeated before the actual battle had begun. So when Isaiah came to his side and declared that God wouldn't allow it - that evil would not take the city - his message was like a good rain to thirsty soil.

The results of his prayer were immediately evident. And graphic.

"And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."

Undeniably effective outcome.

I learned about Isaiah's prayer when I was suffering from a case of pneumonia that was taking me down fast. I felt invaded and pervaded by disease. The fact that I had been praying for healing for a considerable time and yet the symptoms worsened, was eating away at my spiritual resolve. I didn't understand this resistance to healing and the persistence of my suffering.

When I came across Isaiah's prayer, it almost seemed to arrive too late. The disease had already gotten in. The enemy was well entrenched. Or so I thought.

The following explanations from pages 426 and 427 of Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, were significant to my identifying the real enemy and understanding how to apply Isaiah's prayer to the case.

"When it is learned that disease cannot destroy life, and that mortals are not saved from sin or sickness by death, this understanding will quicken into newness of life. It will master either a desire to die or a dread of the grave, and thus destroy the great fear that besets mortal existence...

"The human concepts named matter, death, disease, sickness, and sin are all that can be destroyed...

"Death is but another phase of the dream that existence can be material. Nothing can interfere with the harmony of being nor end the existence of man in Science."

I realized that the disease symptoms were nothing more than the messages being sent ahead by the enemy to intimidate me and wear down my confidence in God and my spiritual resolve. Neither my body, nor pneumonia were the enemy. Even death wasn't the actual enemy because it would eventually be proved to me that man doesn't live or die in matter. No. The enemy bearing down on me was the fear of death. And that I could do something about.

It wasn't too late to work with Isaiah's prayer. Here is a look into some of my reasoning:

Fear of death cannot invade my being. I understand my Life to be God, Spirit, Soul, and that I reflect this life permanently.

Fear cannot pervade me. Fear cannot find effective angles of attack or find in me any weak or vulnerable spot. I am the reflection of perfect, invulnerable Soul, God. I accept that I am Soul-created and Soul-maintained. All the elements of Soul's harmony are mine by reflection. Soul protects me through Her law of indefatigable harmony. I am forever safe.

Fear of death cannot resist my prayers. Prayer is revealing what God, Life, is and does. Prayer is revealing that the fear isn't real. Death cannot touch - has never touched - Life. And divine Life is the law of my prayers, rendering my every thought of God effective in my life.

Fear cannot persist. It cannot keep presenting new lines of attack because I see myself out of the battle. I know for certain that there is no fear in God, Life, Love. The battle with fear is not mine. Love conquers fear. The battle is God's, and it is already won.

As Isaiah saw regarding Hezekiah's enemy, so it was for mine. "By the way that he came" (from the nowhere of fear) "by the same shall he return (to the nothingness of fear).

The pneumonia was stopped dead in its tracks. The black cloud of fear that had threatened me with aggressive symptoms dissipated completely. I was well.

Don't be fooled into fighting an unreal enemy. The symptoms are a red herring. Your body doesn't hate you. The culprit is always fear. It's never too late - NEVER TOO LATE - to stop fear and disease cold.

This post is an updated version of a post that first appeared on 2/10/2012.

Yesterday on the train I looked up from my phone to see various other people staring intently at theirs. One had a nice new haircut; another, a curious coat with raggedy edges. One pretty lady had funky glasses perched low on her nose. This bouquet of interesting folk piqued my interest, so I put the phone back in my purse.

After spending a few moments contemplating outward appearances, I had a thought. What if, instead of noticing the “externals” of my companions, I looked for the qualities they expressed? And with that, the somber-shadowed car suddenly filled with light.

Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To material sense, this divine universe is dim and distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light. ibid. 513:6-10

“All of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit--makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” 2 Corinthians 3:18.

You and your friends are invited to participate in a one-hour webinar (the last one I have scheduled for this Spring) Friday, March 10, 2017, at noon Central Time. Titled Christian Science: What it is and How it heals, this event will cover some of the nuts and bolts about Christian Science.

What is it?Where did it come from?How can it be considered a science when it excludes material methods in its approach to healing?How does Christian Science treatment work?Is it positive thinking?Blind faith?

Those are starter questions, and the rest is up to the participants. There will be an open question and answer period.

This event is sponsored by First Church of Christ, Scientist, Elsah, Illinois, USA. Hope you can join in. And please feel free to share this invitation widely.

I have practiced Christian Science professionally insome form since 1979.But my journey withChristian Science startedin a Sunday schoolwhere as a young childI was taught the Scriptures and some simple basicsof Jesus' method ofscientific Christian healing.A significant experienceat the age of twelveopened my eyes tothe great potentialof this practice. After impaling my footon a nail,I prayed the way I had learnedin Sunday school.Within momentsthe pain stoppedand healing began.By the next morning the wound had disappeared completely.Having experiencedthe great potential​of Christian Science,there would be noturning back.